Funerary Altar of Claudius Felix
This marble base was unearthed during excavations carried out between 1830 and 1832 at Mentana (Rome) for Prince Camillo Borghese. The altar is missing its original crown and is set on a moulded base. The front bears an inscription stating that the preparation of the tomb of Claudius Felix was handled by his heir, Messalla Rutilianus. ‘Felix’ was a very common augural name, in particular among slaves and freedmen, and was almost entirely exclusive to men. The sides of the monument are decorated with a patera and a ewer called an urceus, ritual objects that have a fixed position on cippi and altars and symbolically refer to the position of the priest, holding the bowl, and the camillus, his young assistant, holding the ewer in front of the altar during the sacrifice.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
height 76 cm, width 53 cm; depth 37 cm (epigraphical field); 4.2-4.5 cm letters
Provenance
Borghese Collection, from excavations at Mentana (1830–1832). Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- XIX sec. - upper cornice and left corner of the lower part
- 1996/97 - Liana Persichelli
Commentary
This marble altar was found during excavations ordered by Prince Camillo Borghese at Mentana between 1830 and 1832, ‘in Monte dell’Oro’, and led by an excavator by the name of Spagna. In the guide to the collection published by Antonio Nibby in 1832, it is described in Room II as a base for a bust with a head of Isis. This is where the altar and bust remained until 1997, when they were moved to their current location in Room I.
The four-sided altar is lacking its original crown and rests on a moulded base. The front is decorated with a two-listel cornice framing an inscription. The text D(is) M(anibus) / Cl(audo) Felici bene / merenti Messal / la Rutilianus / heres fecit indicates that the preparation of the tomb of Claudius Felix was handled by his heir, Messalla Rutilianus. ‘Felix’ was a very common augural name, in particular among slaves and freedmen, and was almost entirely exclusive to men (see Greggi 2007).
The sides of the monument are decorated with an urceus on the left and a patera on the right. The formula for the arrangement of these ritual tools on cippi and altars derives from the position of the priest, holding the patera, and the camillus (the boy who assisted the priest during the sacrifice), holding the urceus, in front of the altar during the ritual (Bowerman 1913, p. 87). Over time, the symbolic aspect of these attributes disappeared, and the urceus and patera became typical motifs used to decorate the sides of cippi and altars (Von Schaewen 1940, pp. 17–14).
Stylistic and palaeographic analysis allows us to generically date the altar to the second century CE.
Jessica Clementi
Bibliography
- CIL, XIV 3966
- PIR2, M 508
- A. Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, p. 75, n. 5.
- A. Hübner, Exempla scripturae epigraphicae Latinae a Caesaris dictatoris morte ad aetatem Iustiniani, Berloni 1885, n. 540.
- H.C. Bowerman, Roman Sacrificial Altars. An Archaeological Study of Monuments in Rome, Lancaster 1913, p. 87.
- R. von Schaewen, Römische Opfergeräte, ihre Verwendung im Kultus und in der Kunst, Berlin 1940.
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1954, p. 10.
- R. Calza, Catalogo del Gabinetto fotografico Nazionale, Galleria Borghese, Collezione degli oggetti antichi, Roma 1957, p. 19, n. 222.
- P. Moreno, Museo e Galleria Borghese, La collezione archeologica, Roma 1980, p. 14.
- C. Pala, Nomentum (Forma Italiae I, 12), Roma 1976, p. 70, n. 23.
- P. Moreno, A. Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, pp. 140-141, n. 104.
- M. Granino Cecere, Latium vetus. 1, (CIL, XIV; Eph. Epigr., VII e IX). Latium vetus praeter Ostiam, Roma 2005, pp. 778-779, n. 1021.
- S. Greggi, La documentazione epigrafica dell’antica Nomentum, in “Annali Nomentani”, 2007, pp. 22-87, in part. p. 58, n. 61.
- Schede di catalogo 12/00147829, P. Moreno 1976; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2021
